Full steam ahead with China despite US military ties

China has indicated to Canberra it wants to accelerate negotiations on a free trade agreement in what the federal government sees as a signal that Australia’s most important economic relationship will not be damaged by closer military ties with the US.

Dr Emerson, who broke from his annual leave to speak to The Australian Financial Review, said last night it was clear to him that the Chinese did not see the strengthened Australian commitment to the United States as an act of aggression.

“There is recognition in China that Australia has established itself as a reliable commercial partner and the partnership is vital to meeting China’s resources and energy security needs," Dr Emerson said. “Minister Chen told me that China was very confident about the future of the relationship with Australia."

Free trade negotiations between Australia and China have been proceeding at a snail’s pace since they were launched in 2005, with China largely to blame for the lack of progress.

The 17th round of negotiations was held in Beijing in November without any sign of increased urgency. But Dr Emerson said he now had high hopes that negotiations would accelerate this year.

The positive signal on trade came amid concerted diplomatic efforts by Australia to prevent its closer military ties with the US from damaging the economic relationship with China as tensions between the superpowers increases.

Australian diplomats worked behind the scenes before last week’s announcement by US President
Barack Obama
of a new Asia-Pacific focused military strategy in which Australia will have a main role in minimising the risk of any negative fallout for the relationship with China.

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Government sources said attempts to reassure Beijing of Australia’s ongoing good intentions towards China had come after an initial “sharp reaction" from the Chinese government to Australia’s decision to strengthen military ties with the US as part of its plans to beef up its regional strategic presence.

Officials said that a strongly worded Chinese response over the weekend to Mr Obama’s unveiling of the new US military doctrine has “been anticipated" in the recent ­diplomatic dialogue between Australia and China.

“We are well aware of the need to ensure that we maintain the appropriate balance in these two vital relationships," a senior source said.

“We are confident that we can avoid any serious misunderstandings with Beijing."

Officials closely involved in monitoring Chinese sentiment towards Australia told the Financial Review that they believed China’s warnings to the US about the dangers of “reckless militarism" and “war mongering" were being made against a background of some internal soul- searching in Beijing about its own recent behaviour.

The officials said there had been some “signals" from Beijing that China had reflected that its own posture had been “too muscular".

“We believe that Beijing has done some soul-searching of its own and concluded that their assertiveness in the past couple of years – especially their more aggressive presence in the South China Sea – has been counter-productive and should be modified," one official said.

Although Mr Obama did not name China in particular in his new military posture statement last week, analysts unanimously agree that the prime objective of the Obama strategy is to counter increased Chinese assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and a rapid build-up of Chinese military spending.

The release of the new US strategy has sparked warnings of a slide into a new Cold War between the US and China as the US seeks to maintain its military advantage over China and China aims to increase its military muscle to match its growing economic power.

But advisers to the Gillard government question this analysis, believing China has no interest in getting involved in an arms race with the US.

They say that reflection by the Chinese leadership about the need to modify its own assertiveness would be a welcome sign that China is anxious to avoid any “escalation based on misunderstanding" of military and strategic tensions with the US.

Meanwhile, despite the Gillard government’s diplomatic efforts to defuse any tensions with China, one of Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
’s most influential trade union supporters, the Secretary of the Australian Workers Union,
Paul Howes
, has criticised China’s human rights record (especially the outlawing of trade unions) and launched an attack on those (including former opposition leader
Malcolm Turnbull
) he said were advocating a strengthening of Chinese military power to “balance" US power in the Asia-Pacific region.

“There are some in Australian politics who advocate shifting our alliances from the US to a more neutral stance internationally in order to offend China less," Mr Howes wrote in an article for News Ltd papers.

“The idea is that if we turn a blind eye to the fact that the Chinese ­government routinely incarcerates political activists in work camps, then they might throw a few more billion yuan our way. I would call this blood money."